Verizon and Cisco Want Us to Have Holographic TV in 10 Years

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3D has never really tickled my fancy, but I — and I suspect everyone else — could get down with an awesome holographic projection. Complex, Back to the Future 2-style holograms, like full-body teleportation and safe cloning, is something I figure won't happen during my lifetime. Apparently it could — in as little as 10 years.

Speaking about the future of television, Cisco CEO John Chamberssaid that 3D was here to stay: "There is no question in my mind that 3D is the next thing to happen in video. It's the next logical evolution of the technology."

That evolution, however, requires a stronger infrastructure. As video gets more complex, so too does the connection between companies and consumers. How fast would we need to go? Well, it's these kinds of demands that have Verizon's Chief Information Officer Shaygan Kheradpir testing out a 1Gbps connection — that's one gigabyte per second — to see how it'd change the consumer media landscape.

Kheradpir said this will eventually change as technology matures and as very high-speed broadband services, such as Fios, get to more consumers. He admitted that outfitting homes with cameras to send and receive holograms will take years. But he said that it's still critical to get the consumer network in place that can handle such heavy loads.

Sure, it does sound crazy. Then again, when I was a kid fiddling around with a 56k modem, I probably didn't think I'd still be a young man when I could stream movies right to my TV over thin air.

"3D will make things more lifelike, " Chambers concludes. "But I think in 10 years we'll be seeing holograms used. Not only can this be used to enhance business communications, but imagine the implications for certain vertical businesses like medicine."